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In this episode, we talk to Zachary White, a career coach known for helping engineers, about the importance of work-life balance. He also provides some great tips to manage burnout, fear and uncertainty and remain a productive engineer.
There is no doubt that we as leaders and team have been going through a season of much higher fear, anxiety, and trauma with the COVID-19 crisis and the very visual revealing of racial injustice and inequities previously ignored.
Our stressors are also multifaceted and connected with different concerns.
On one hand, our concerns are related to health, economics, isolation, and an uncertain and non-uniform re-opening. On the other hand, our concerns are related to seeing large gaps in long-standing social constructs associated with equality, justice, and inclusion.
Concurrently we begin to work through the “peaks,” medically and in terms of concerns over our organization’s near-term financial health, and as we begin to better listen, understand, and take new actions as citizens and society, the fact is that we will not — and must not — just return to “normal.”
Between then and now, however, there are things we need to know and steps we need to take to help ease concerns and come out of these periods of crisis stronger, better, and more resilient.
[Read more…] about Getting Ahead of the Next Curve as a Leader and Team
These quotes, and others like them, seem to be preached more and more, all of the time. Viewing failure in this way is actually quite important; it allows us to move through uncertainty, even though that uncertainty can be a source of great fear. But believing in the principle doesn’t mean it’s automatically easy to actually do it. So how do we deal with fear, move through uncertainty, and take action anyway? Here are four ideas:
Here’s a topic not often discussed in the offices of the majority of leaders: FEAR. We’ll talk about risk, or problem’s, or setbacks. But never fear. Why is that? Probably because the word “fear” comes with a lot of baggage. Fear isn’t something that’s talked about openly, ever. It’s a sign of weakness or lack of capability.
The truth is, fear is present whether we want to admit openly or not. Leaders have fears, team members have fear, even senior leaders and clients have fears. Fear of failure, fear of looking bad, fear of missing something important that sets a project on its rear…the list goes on. Some of these fears are project or mission related, some are personal.
Regardless, fear still exists. Am I wrong?
Here’s an example:
[Read more…] about 3 Actions That Help You Lead Your Engineering Team Despite Fear
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In this episode, I talk about Lu Ding, PE, PTOE, an Engineer who overcame her fear of public speaking in one year. I specifically discuss her ECSx talk at the Engineering Career Summit in New Orleans this past May. You will also here Lu’s talk in this episode and you can watch it at the bottom of this post.
Engineering Success quotes:
Here are the key points from the episode:
[Read more…] about TECC 119: An Engineer Overcomes her Fear of Public Speaking in One Year
Stress and anxiety are very common among engineers. This article includes a list of techniques that engineers can use to help manage their daily stresses and anxieties.
At times, we have to deal with stresses and anxieties when many things happens all at once. When this happens, take a deep breath and try to find something to do for a few minutes to get your mind off of the problem. Take a walk, listen to some music, read the newspaper or do an activity that will give you a fresh perspective on things.
When faced with a current or upcoming task in your career that overwhelms you with a lot of anxiety, divide the task into a series of smaller steps and then complete each of the smaller tasks one at a time. Dealing with smaller tasks will make the stress more manageable and increases your chances of success. [Read more…] about How To Deal With The Stresses and Anxieties of Being An Engineer
